Description of App
The BC4000 APP is a turn-based strategy game. The game has an online mode, a hot seat mode and a single player mode. You take on the role of the ruler of a civilization, attempt to build an empire in competition with other civilizations. The game begins in 4000 BC, before the Bronze Age, and can last through to AD 2100 with Space Age.
Along with the larger tasks of exploration, warfare and diplomacy, you have to make decisions about where to build new cities, which improvements or units to build in each city, when to expand your empire by new settlers, and how to transform the land surrounding the cities for maximum benefit. From time to time your cities may be harassed by units from other nations or barbarians. You should protect borders and maintain zones of control.
You can gain a large advantage if your civilization is the first to learn a particular technology and put it to use in a military or other context. Since only one technology may be researched at any given time, the order in which technologies are chosen makes a considerable difference in the outcome of the game and generally reflects your preferred style of gameplay. Please carefully consider about forms of government, tax rates and research priorities.
You can also build Wonders of the World after obtaining the prerequisite knowledge. These wonders are important achievements of society, science, culture and defense, ranging from the Pyramids and the Great Wall in the Ancient age, to Copernicus' Observatory and Magellan's Expedition in the middle period, up to the Apollo program in the modern era. Each wonder can only be built once in the world, and requires a lot of resources to build, far more than most other city buildings or units. Wonders provide unique benefits to the controlling civilization. For example, Magellan's Expedition increases the movement rate of naval units.
The game can be won by conquering all other civilizations or by winning the space race by reaching the star system of Alpha Centauri.
The strategy logic and user interactive concept are inspired by the original Sid Meier's Civilization. Most graphics, music, map and text materials come from public domain licensed by Creative Commons License or General Public License.
Comments
I've contacted the developer
I've contacted the developer regarding the explorers, archers, mercenaries and nomads that are not supported by cities. I have suggested that he add an option from within the city menu next to the tasking units and present units. Next to those options can be a new option saying unknown units, from where we can activate and control those units that are not supported by a city, especially when they are auto exploring. So far, my only issue is the fact that we don't have full control over those units, but adding such an option will be a great help to all of us.
The response to my suggestion.
Soon, we will be able to find and reactivate units that are not supported by cities through the nation control menu. Now we will have full control over all units. Hats off to this guy.
The new update is here and it's a goody.
You can locate and activate units that are not supported by cities via the nations menu. You can now also play alone in new galaxy mode or Play multiplayer in new planet mode. Have a blast.
Game changer tip
OK I’ve struck gold! When viewing the map, triple tap with two fingers on your screen to bring up the IOS item selection menu. A list will appear with all the tiles that are on your screen at this moment. Then you can use the search box to search whatever you are looking for on the map and filter out the results. For example if you are searching for wheat or coal and you enter the keyword in the search box, the item selector will only show tiles with The resource you want. It gets even better. You can enter the word unit in the search box and only tiles with units on top will be listed. Same thing goes for cities, points of interest of a specific nation etc. GG and you’re welcome :)
That's good, although
I wonder if there's any game difference between all those resources, since everything revolves around food, shield and trade? Perhaps those other resources will give a bonus to A specific area? We'll have to do some experiments.
not sure but some differences seem to exist
for example spice gives you trade andd food. andd I think col andd iron gives different amount of shield.
Another thing I'd like to know
I wonder if you can irrigate the land or do mining anywhere you want, or does it have to be on your city's offset tiles? I know that you can perform these actions anywhere you want, but whether or not they actually generate resources for your city is another question.
About tiles
You can build all infrastructure wherever you want but you get nothing if it’s not within the boundaries that your cities work. However this is useful because when building cities far away from your capital you might need to irrigate a couple of wheat tiles first, Else your new city will be destroyed by famine on the next turn due to food waste. Food waste is Haft by Grannary or courthouse and is eliminated with both. Also note that the four corners of the offset zone are not worked by the city.
Furthermore coal is only found on hills and iron only on mountains. I think iron gives more production than coal but mountains give no food at all.
Holy shocker!
The latest update is here and we can now create our own world maps. Furthermore, we now have a tutorial.
I started playing yesterday, and didn’t see a tutorial
Hi,
I started playing this game yesterday on my iPad, and didn’t see a tutorial.
Now that there is one, do I have to start over, to get to the tutorial?
I guess so.
Update, then start a new game.
There’s more
The menus have also changed. Now in the world menu you can also find units of interest which are enemy units within your territory. When you’re empire has grown, better check this menu before everything else when the turn starts.
Also when there is a disorder in a city, when you press the end turn button and then the handle disorder button, all cities with disorders appear in a separate list.
Now you can also choose how to list cities in the cities menu without having to go back. Same goes with diplomacy relationships in the world menu.
The tutorial is in a separate menu so I don’t think you need to start a new game in order to access it. There is more to the update just do a bit of looking around.
This game is getting better and better. Dr. Wu Jianfeng has not only made this game fully accessible and making it seem easy in the process, which I’m sure was not, but he has also shown how this beautiful mind of his works. In fact by seeing the doctors work ethics and professionalism I would trust him to develop anything and to do it perfectly. The attention he puts into details is impressive and he lets nothing slip, even for a side project of his which this game is.
Map-100x100 app crash
When creating one of these maps, The app will crash when creating maps in certain ways and as soon as you start the game. I have sent one of these maps to the developer, as I'm not exactly sure what's causing the crash. Anyway, it is as you say. The game is getting better and better. Multiplayer diplomacy also works now.
Intra-nation migration and inter-nation migration?
I'm just curious. What exactly does these options do?
Never mind the crash.
So I've figured out why the game crashes when building your own map sometimes. There are what I would like to call starting tiles where either you or your opponents are randomly chosen to begin on. Through trial and error, you must learn where these starting points are. This is very important, because if you don't have a land tile on at least one of these starting points for both you and your opponents, there will obviously be no place to start from, so the game will crash. In short, try to figure out where the starting points are, start building your map by placing a land tile, preferably A plane or grassland, then work from there. The rest is easy Peasy. A long time ago, back in the days of the Nintendo entertainment system, there were a couple of games where you could edit your own map. These games were Battle city and Lode runner. While all these different games clearly had different objectives, the editing concept was the same. You simply select one among many building options, then plant them on an empty 16x16 grid. Those were the days and boy did I miss those days, but who could've thought that I'd be building maps like that ever again at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022? Just awesome stuff.
Just looking this over, and…
Just looking this over, and it looks awesome! I particularly like the ability to get lists of units and cities, and scroll through them.
I do however have two questions.
Firstly, is there a way to see steps in the tutorial again once you've moved around the game screen? There's so much to look at, often I either get the step wrong, or am not sure where to find the thing I need to progress.
Second, I was wondering what the state of accessibility is for the master of Orion mode, since I've always wanted to try a game of galactic exploration and colonisation.
I'm quite aware the developer is a busy fellow, and it's obvious that the accessibility work that's already gone into the civilization mode is pretty fantastic, I was just curious, since when I had a look at the galaxy mode, the interface seemed very different from that in civilization mode.
To answer your questions
I doubt you can see the steps again in the tutorial, unless you restart the tutorial. As for galaxy mode, I'm not sure if it's fully accessible, or maybe it's just me being stupid. i too, would like to hear from a galaxy pro on this.
Some thoughtts as a Strategy Fan
I just wanted to give some impressions as a fan of games like this. I'm over all very impressed. The map navigation is quite simple and straight-forward. It is easier for me to explore by touch, rather than swiping. I also very much appreciate the lists of units and ease of access to information in general.
I'm afraid the galaxy/Orion mode is not accessible. I've played Master of Orion quite a bit, and we currently don't have access to the galaxy map as far as I can tell.
I am a bit surprised to see the two games combined like this. There is little similar between them, and they are quite distinct in some ways. i'm not complaining mind you, just a little confused :)
I very much look forward to many hours of fun with this game. Thanks so much for the work on it.
Does anyone know anything about the inaccessible building tile?
From my personal experience, it seems to be a kind of tile that prevents any and all access. You can't even get resources from it or travel onto it by any means, although I'm not 100% sure if we will be able to do so with later technologies. On the plus side, it seems to be a good way to force a space race. Just build inaccessible tiles between you and the enemy, then you won't be able to bother each other. On a 100x50 grid, I have built myself a straight vertical line filled with plain tiles stretching from [0, 0] and [0, 47], surrounding them with inaccessible tiles. This way, I have insured that both me and the enemy must work from a straight line, cutting off the rest of the world. Let's see how this turns out.
galaxy mode
I have been trying to play the galaxy mode. It seems pretty accessible, except I can't figure out how to find other star systems to start a new colony, which is pretty much the whole point of the game.
There could be controls voice over isn't seeing, , if so I wouldn't know.
From the description it sounds like it will be be a really cool game when I get it working.
Here comes yet another update.
Some new history scenarios are here, like the American Civil War. There are also new maps, such as Japan and I can't remember the other one. New community maps are also available to choose from. In addition, we now have a brush to work with when creating our own maps. We can select the type and the size of the brush. The type and size of brush will determine how many tiles to cover at once when double tapping on it, or how the tiles is covered. For example, a square type brush which has been set to size 9 will Cover the highlighted tile along with 4 to the north, east, south and west. This will obviously allow for faster map building. Go and grab the update, if you haven't already.
strange issue...
hi. i am building my 100x50 map.
but it seems like i cannot change some tiles like 50 0.
what should i do?
Make sure to
Select a building tool at the bottom before you plant tiles. Also, check your brush and its size at the menu.
thanks.
i created a map thanks to you.
Glad I could help
In the future, we will be able to choose our own starting points for our custom maps.
Keyboard
I am not a user of a bluetooth keyboard with my iPhone, but I would certainly buy one if the game worked with a keyboard. I think back to when I had vision and played it on the PC. I scrolled the map with the mouse, but movement was all arrow keys, and tasks were quick keys. So easy to just go I for irrigation, B for Build, M for mine etc. Being able to do that alone would be great, but I would love to be able to use it for map movement. In a perfect world, you would move focus around the map with arrows to explore the terrain, having the cell contents automatically echoed, and pressing a key like enter to move the active unit to that point. I think Civ is one of the best games of all time, but as much as I appreciate the accessibility, I find the whole interface cumbersome when presented with playing it on a touch screen.
New update
For custom maps, we can now choose our own starting points. We can also choose the kind of resources that we want for specific terrains, as well as adjusting the technology level between 1 and 80.
A Start on Galaxy Mode
It looks like he's started on trying to make galaxy mode work for us as well. There still seem to be some hiccup's with it, but it's nice to think that we'll perhaps soon have two classic strategy games in one, for free.
mode map accessibility
I contacted the developer about the accessibility of the map in the galaxy mode (Master of Orion).
He confirmed to me that he had labeled all the elements, as for the civilization mode.
Indeed, map elements such as star systems are correctly read by VoiceOver.
To locate them and interact with them, the most convenient seems to me to be the use of the VoiceOver element selector, with press 3 times with two fingers.
Note that the screen only displays part of the galaxy.
It is only once in interaction with an element of the map that another portion of the galaxy can be displayed, by swiping with 3 fingers vertically or horizontally.
The developer will try to improve the map Controller (popup after tapping Map menu) to read out star information in the future version.
Map menu galaxy mode
The VoiceOver gestures mentioned in my previous email allow in particular to find other star systems to start a new colony, but they do not work in the map menu which remains desperately inaccessible.
Hopefully the developer can actually fix it in a future release.
In the meantime, to test if we can do without it because this game is a cult game and apparently remains a reference like Civilization.
Galaxy Map
Hi,
As far as I understand it the galaxy map mode is just for showing the whole area at once, and you can't actually interact with it to send ships or what have you. I might be wrong.
That being said, I have some issues with the current game but I can't tell if they're bugs in the VO implementation or the actual game mechanics. I've played Master of Orion quite a lot, and for instance reserve fuel tanks always let you send ships which equip them out two parsecs beyond your current colony ship range. I couldn't seem to send scouts out four parsecs in a recent game, and am not sure why.
I'll definitely keep my eye out for future improvements however.
Upcoming Version
That issue I mentioned in my previous comment is a bug which the developer says will be fixed in the next version. I'm very much looking forward to that along with an updated map controller, which will hopefully help make the galaxy mode more pleasant. It's already very nice to play around with but I hesitate to start a longer game at the moment.
very weird issue...
hi.
i just tried to play my o)n map but, i cannot adjust number of countries option and number of human players option.
what should i do?
That is a known bug in the version 1.3.5
Would you please wait the version 1.3.6 ready in a few days?
And save the map again by Version 1.3.6 to fix the bug about max players count.
thanks for letting me know.
thanks.
i will wait untill it comes.
i didn't know it is a bug.
I don't have problems
I never knew the bug existed. All you need is enough starting positions as far as I know. If you have only one start position, then you won't be able to adjust players.
thanks for the suggestion.
i will try it.
anyway, it would be super awesome if there is more fast way to add multiple terrains, resources and starting position. like typing the location like 0, 0 to 99, 0.
You're welcome.
Let me know if it works for you. I'm not sure how many starting positions you can have, but you can definitely have multiple starting positions. This should allow you to adjust both nations and human players.
it worked perfectly!
it worked.
again, thanks for the tip.
Glad I could help.
Glad I could help. Just remember that even though you have multiple starting positions, The game still randomly selects who starts where. So, if you have two starting positions, the computer will randomly choose which one is yours and which one is his.
The new update is here and
We can now choose exactly who is starting where on the map, as well as planting cities on our own custom maps for both ourselves and our opponents. We can also choose our own AI opponents, which was a suggestion of mine and for which I am extremely grateful. Furthermore, we can now literally cheat or reverse cheat bye selecting high technology for ourselves or vice versa. There are also updates to the Galaxy mode, although I'm so caught up with this civilisation mode, I haven't played galaxy in ages. I'm afraid someone else will have to step in and enlighten us on galaxy mode. Creating all of these fancy stuff is a bit of a tricky process, but it is still 100% accessible and like Terry Silver from karate kid would say, bigger and badder than ever. If anyone is struggling with managing nations, just ask.
A few things to keep in mind
As you all know, there are now new options when building your own map. There is an option labelled file, where you can save your map and set the initial technology level. Doing this will allow all nations on the map to start equally with the same technology. Next to the file option is a brush. This option is pretty straightforward, allowing you to change the shape and size of the brush you want to work with, as well as switching between terrain and resources. Next to the brush option is another brush option, although I'm not sure why it is labelled that. Anyway, the second brush option is actually the player management option. Selecting this option will allow you to add specific nations to the map. Keep in mind however that selecting this option will disable the ability to adjust nations on the startup game screen, as the game will automatically assume that the nations you chose at the nation management screen is the nations you'll be playing with. Thus, in this case you will only be able to adjust the number of human players at this screen. Another thing to remember is that should you use the nation management option, your nation Will start the game with no units, so it is extremely important to make sure you plant a city for your nation. If you don't plant a city for your nation, you won't be able to build cities as you obviously will have no settlers. The same rules apply to each additional nation you add via the nation management option. Once a nation has been added via the nation management option, you can double tap on the nation to change its technology level between 2 and 80. Changing technology levels via the nation management option will act as a kind of cheat or reverse cheat mode depending on who you wish to favour. Hope this was helpful.
I could be wrong, but I believe there is a bug with the AI.
So, when using the player management option, having planted cities for both you and your opponents, the AI doesn't seem to know what to do given the fact that we start with no units. It seems that the AI will only build military units and grow their city to size 2. They won't build new cities and they won't build settlers or workers. I have reported this. Of course, I could be entirely wrong. However, after many turns, I look at their cities and see only one or two military units and they still have the same amount of cities they started with.
So I have a question.
So I have a question. I am working on a map called jungle Paradise. I have manually added in the number of nations I want. So I have created starting positions for them, as well as starting cities. If I choose not to manually add in players in future Mavs, do I still need to create starting positions because of the number I might have? So for example let’s say I have five nations total, even if I don’t want to manually add them in do I need to create five separate starting positions.
If you setup nations for players
If you setup nations for players, you don't need to set start positions anymore.
Start positions only work for random players without any pre-defined nations.
Awesome so should I
Awesome! So should I take out the starting positions I have in the current math I’m working on? The current map has specific nations that I’ve set up. Also, I am thinking of creating a World War II map. What are everyone’s thoughts on that?
It is not harmful if you keep these start positions
after you define specific nations. The BC4000 app will ignore them automatically.
Looking forward to play World War II map.
OK thanks
OK thanks. As far as the World War II map goes, I am a history buff, so I know a lot about it, but what would you guys as a community like to see in the map? What time. Would you like it to start at also? I’d have to look up again when World War II started so I think it was in 1939?
Very impressed
I am very impressed at how quickly this developer has been implementing accessibility features. Just a couple days ago he updated this game with a more accessible map layout for the master of Orion mode. Also I see how he is reading and actively contributing to this discussion. So a big thank you to him.
I do have one question. More like a statement really. I'm not sure how exactly to get my ships to move in the galaxy mode. I have tried selecting the system I want them to go to and I have tried changing the slider bars to send different numbers of ships and everything else I can think of. So I'm not sure why I haven't been able to get my shits to go anywhere.
Jianfeng Wu was right. Ignore my previous comment on the bug
Apparently, AI's with lower tech just need more time. I guess I jumped the gun too early. Sorry about that. Anyway, @Firefly go for WWII if you want. It's a mostly free world lol. Starting positions only apply to maps without specific nations.